Hakan Aydin

Here’s the fourth post in the ‘European hyprocrisy’ series, and I have a feeling that it won’t be the last. Here are the links to the previous three: (1 2 3)

Sarkozy, a French presidential contender, was on an official visit to Algeria a few weeks ago. (News & commentary from The Economist). Sarkozy made himself heard by a large audience last year during the violent protests in France, when he referred to the rioters, many of them of Algerian origin, as “scum”.

Sarkozy is also always first-in-line to object when the subject is Turkey’s membership to European Union and he is known for his outspoken critisism and hostility towards Turkey. This is not really surprising, given the unwillingness of the French people for Turkey’s EU membership and given that even Turkish people do not want to join the EU anymore (latest polls suggest that only about 30% of Turkey support joining the EU).

What’s surprising and appalling is Mr. Sarkozy’s hypocrisy. Sarkozy, at every opportunity in the past, has “reminded” Turkey to “accept” its dark past and accept the claims of the so-called Armenian Genocide and went even so far as attempting to make this a precondition on EU accession talks. However, Sarkozy, when asked about the tragic 8 years (1954-1962) of Algerian struggle which left 1.5 million Algerians dead, for which the Algerian government has repeatedly asked for an official apology, said: “I told Abdelaziz Belkhadem [Algeria’s prime minister] that you can’t ask sons to say sorry for their fathers’ mistakes”.

Wow. What a change of policy all of a sudden. The French parliament has recently approved legislation that makes denying the so-called Armenian genocide a crime, punishable by fines and a prison sentence. However, when it comes to the dark past of France, Paris is OK to leave the argument to historians. From Paris-Link: “Regarding French crimes during the colonial period, which included concentration camps and torture, Nicolas Sarkozy insisted that suffering took place on both sides and that no official apology would be made, despite repeated calls from the Algerian government in recent days.”

Sigh.